Party’s presidential primaries and the consolidation of democracy in Ghana’s 4th Republic

Abstract

Democracy under any system of rule is associated with vibrant political parties and credible elections. Both are indispensable in a representative democracy. The good conduct of elections within a political party promotes and consolidates democracy. Political parties in Ghana have suffered internal conflict resulting in factions, break-away, and the formation of new parties because of undemocratic party operations especially in the conduct of primaries. This act threatens the country’s attempt to consolidate its democracy. Internal party reforms are adopted to ensure democratic practices and operations. The reforms include widening the electoral base of the party in the selection of candidates, simultaneous conduction of polls across constituencies, and restriction of candidates eligible for elections. These reforms are to reduce vote-buying, intimidation, physical assault, and fierce competition to enhance legitimisation of election results and the acceptability of candidates. The paper assessed how the various reforms adopted by the two major political parties in Ghana have influenced and legitimised the conduct of presidential primaries. The paper adopted a qualitative research design through interviews and reviewed extant literature to set the theoretical basis of the study. It is realised that the operationalisation of the reforms in 2014 and 2019 of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), respectively, has reduced the rancour associated hitherto with primaries. This exercise has gone a long way in consolidating democracy with a peaceful conduct of presidential primaries not withstanding vestiges of vote-buying, security breaches, party executive biases, and high party nomination fees.